The Israel Lobby Archive releases today a declassified FBI investigation file into the diversion of weapons grade uranium from the NUMEC plant in Pennsylvania to Israel's Dimona nuclear weapons facility. The document, long cited but never made available on the Internet until now, reveals the identities and cover stories of a four-man Israeli covert operations team sent to NUMEC during the time period it suffered its greatest highly enriched uranium loss according to a 2001 Energy Department audit. While Rafael Eitan's true identity as a spy was revealed in 1986 after the Jonathan Pollard espionage case broke, the espionage careers of the other three members of the team targeting NUMEC have been only recently revealed by researchers.
Israel Lobby Archive: http://www.irmep.org/ila/numec/pg1_97-125.pdf
Antiwar.com analysis: http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2011/02/08/pollard-espionage-ring-still-unfolding/
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****************************** ***Antiwar.com Excerpt****************************************
Pollard Espionage Ring Still Unfolding
by Grant F. Smith - February 8, 2011
"...The two former Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials' exposé reveals how 337 kilograms of material, enough for several weapons, made their way into Israel's Dimona nuclear weapons facility likely packed in the same sealed containers as lawful radioactive agricultural and scientific equipment shipments. It cites a secret CIA diversion briefing held at the NRC, credible official audits of materials lost to processing waste and absorption versus diversion, accounts of CIA recovery in Israel of HEU traces matching the Portsmouth signature of NUMEC's government-supplied uranium, and the plant owner's deep and ongoing ties to Israeli intelligence case officers and suspicious activities.
...Inadvertently, these expert nuclear diversion researchers make a very strong case against releasing Jonathan J. Pollard, currently sentenced to life in prison for spying for Israel. In 1986 espionage investigators discovered and alerted the press that Pollard's handler, Rafael Eitan, shared the same birth date as a supposed "chemist, Ministry of Defense, Israel" who visited NUMEC on Sept. 10, 1968, as part of a "four- man team." But it is now clear that the entirety of the Israeli spy network of agents and operations has not yet been fully revealed.
...Shapiro, investigated for years as a national security risk, was meeting with Israel's top covert operatives, none of whom had any expertise in "thermo electric devices." Ephraim Biegun was head of the Israeli technical department of its Secret Services between 1960 to 1970. Avraham Hermoni was technical director of Israel's nuclear bomb project at RAFAEL and had a role in the highly decentralized Dimona project. Bendor was a long-time Shin Bet operative and Eitan's "right-hand man" on overseas operations. A 2001 Energy Department audit found that NUMEC's losses were highest between 1966 and 1968, and only returned to industry standards after Shapiro left NUMEC when Babcock and Wilcox Company bought the plant in 1971...
...this latest revelation of the identities and motives of Israel's clandestine network in the U.S. has been all but drowned out by growing calls for Pollard's release. As might be expected, the Zionist Organization of America has intensified its calls for Pollard's release. Former Vice President Dan Quayle is the latest voice in the growing choir of U.S. and Israeli politicians demanding Obama release the convicted Israeli spy. In a Jan. 31 letter, Quayle argued that "a life sentence for the crime committed is very extreme." He joins former Secretary of State George Schultz and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, along with 38 members of Congress who have formally called for Pollard's release..."
http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2011/02/08/pollard-espionage-ring-still-unfolding/ (Full story with hyperlinks)
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